Jelly Roll has an issue with the music business's shady practices that affect record sales.
During his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show earlier this week, the Nashville native spoke on how his latest album, Beautifully Broken, went No. 1. According to Jelly Roll, another artist he wouldn't name was dropping an album at the same time as him that wasn't even projected to be within a specific number of sales for the top spot on the charts.
However, the day before the sales count ended, that artist sold close to that sales number for No. 1 spot on the charts. Jelly Roll said he spoke to his manager about the race to No. 1, and was warned not to get wrapped up in the "dirty" side of the music business.
"There was an artist that looked like HITS Daily Double projected they wasn't even gonna be within 50-60,000 albums of me and Rod Wave," said Jelly Roll. "And then Thursday night, before the Friday count ends, 40,000 albums [from a] third-party aggregated site. And you're just like 'Yo, that's just slimey.' I used a great term. Now, Luminate who is in charge of counting record sales, rejected these sales, which is how I ended up with the No. 1 album."
Although he didn't mention the artist's name, people online believe Jelly Roll is referring to Charli XCX, whose albums Brat and It's Completely Different but Also Still Brat debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 when Roll took the top spot. Rod Wave came in at No. 2 with his album Last Lap which Jelly Roll said should've taken the top spot as Wave racked up more streams than him.